All the best-dressed explorers wore glittery spacesuits more suitable to the Silver Surfer than somber NASA astronauts in the early days of the Space Age. These are the helmets, gloves, and boots for the Mercury Seven astronauts.

Last year, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned in his own fluids during a harrowing spacewalk-gone-wrong. Now, NASA has teamed with the Houston Methodist Hospital's research institute to make sure that such a thing never happens again—using a CT scanner.

Why do astronauts hop on the moon? After carefully watching hapless volunteers use a treadmill under variable gravity, researchers think it had more to do with the stiffness of spacesuits than anything else.

After popular vote, NASA has a new futuristic skin for their Z-2 space suit design. Incorporating electroluminescent wire and exposed rotating bearings, this is the technology-themed design. The design will be used for terrestrial testing, so get ready for some awesome photo-shoots.

Allyn B. "Happ" Hazard just looks so dang happy in his space suit, that it seems a shame JPL claims no responsibility for it. NASA never developed his design, but toy manufacturer Mattel knew it was too cute for words.

Fearless Felix Baumgartner's jump was truly amazing but, at about 127,000 feet, it wasn't from orbit—not even low Earth orbit. Maybe one day someone will beat his record with this re-entry emergency suit. Can you imagine being inside as you plunge into Earth's atmosphere and everything turns into fire?

If I had a space suit, I'd wear it everywhere. Commuting on the bus, out to bars, hiking in the mountains, lecturing my students. I don't even care that it's heavy and difficult to move around in; I've been uncomfortable for fashion before. Photographer Ken Hermann is on the same wavelength, with the added insight…

BBC's Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame recently got to step inside a NASA's Z1 spacesuit prototype that was pressurized to simulate what wearing the spacesuit would be like on Mars. Because Mars atmosphere is so thin, the suit needs to be pumped up inside to hold his body together. No matter to Hammond though. He did…

One in a series of X-Rays currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's "Suited for Space" exhibit, this unusual view gives the observer a peek inside an experimental space suit designed in the late sixties.

If you've ever watched footage of a spacewalk, you've seen an astronaut outfitted in an extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), the spacesuit specially designed for astronauts working outside of spacecraft orbiting Earth at 17,220 miles per hour.

It's been eight long years since Apollo 13. We need our historically accurate space movie fix! Thank goodness Warner Bros. is cooking up a new feature, Spacesuit, based entirely on the creation of the Apollo spacesuits. OK, we're listening.